


Young and Menace

by eledhwenlin



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fraternity, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-23 09:59:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14932103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eledhwenlin/pseuds/eledhwenlin
Summary: Two frats + 1 foreign exchange student = prank war.Or: How Sidney Crosby learned to fall in love.





	Young and Menace

**Author's Note:**

  * For [witblogi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/witblogi/gifts).



> Dear witblogi, I had a lot of fun writing this so I hope that it makes you as happy as writing it made me.
> 
> A thousand thanks to my dearest Dangercupcake for the lightning fast beta. <333
> 
> Title kindly provided by Fall Out Boy.

Sidney can't believe this is his life. He involuntarily twitches and immediately Geno's hand on his arm tightens. "Shhh," Geno whispers in Sidney's ear, his breath brushing Sidney's cheek. "Must be quiet."

Sidney opens his mouth to whisper back that he's _trying_ to be quiet, thank you very much, but Geno puts his hand over Sidney's half-open mouth.

"I hear noise," Geno says, his lips touching Sidney's ear and there's only so much he can take. He shivers, his arm almost knocking against a shelf. It just results in Geno pulling Sidney closer against himself, as if holding him tight could prevent Sidney from making any noise that could betray him. 

Outside of the closet he can hear a couple of people walking past, unhurriedly, their chatter flowing away among wisps of laughter.

Sidney forces himself to breathe shallowly, but evenly, and to stay calm. He can smell Geno, his body wash and a tiny hint of sweat. Combined with the fact that Geno is practically cradling Sidney against his body, pressed flush together from chest to knees, and the way Geno's thumb is rubbing against Sidney's cheek, Sidney thinks he's never been this turned on in his entire life.

He just wishes they weren't hiding from the Kappas in a storage closet on the ground floor of the Kappa house right now.

***

It starts entirely innocently at the beginning of term, or at least as much anything involving Flower and Tanger can be innocent. To be fair, though, Sidney doesn't think much of their idea to try and recruit pledges from the international students.

"Foreign students have this exotic appeal," Tanger says wisely. "They'll attract loads of girls."

"You are basically almost married to your girlfriend," Sidney says distractedly while he is looking over his schedule.

"I'm thinking only of you!" Tanger tugs Sidney's schedule away. "Why are you still looking at this, haven't you ironed out all your classes since your first day freshman year?"

"Hahaha," Sidney says and pulls it back. "It's just, Professor Monroe announced that there was still space in his seminar about the impact of the Pacific theater on the European theater and I was wondering—"

"Do you still have time to sleep between all that work?" Flower says. From there the conversation derails into whether or not Sidney is a workaholic (emphatically no, he is just _driven_ and doesn't take his good grades for granted) and whether Flower's and Tanger's girlfriends would agree to an open relationship (only if the girls could get girlfriends, Sidney says, because between the two of them they are already a bag of dicks). 

Sidney still thinks to this day that he can't be faulted for forgetting about it. He's the president of their fraternity (mostly because he's willing to deal with the administrative aspects, he thinks) and he's totally fine with leaving the fun aspects to the social chair and pledge master of Phi Iota.

At no point Sidney thinks that a harmless evening at the international orientation mixer would lead to an extended prank war with Kappa Alpha.

***

It says maybe too much about Sidney's life that he's much too used to Flower marching into his room, taking some clothes out of Sidney's closet and telling him to put them on. 

"Where are we going?" Sidney says while fiddling with his hair.

"Easy on the hair gel," Flower says and pulls it from Sidney's hands. "Tonight's the mixer."

"What do you need me for?" Sidney asks. "I have homework to do."

Flower snorts. "It's the first week of class."

"I'm taking my studies—"

"Seriously, I know." Flower pushes Sidney out of the door. "Relax, you still have more than enough time to read through all the new books in the library."

The international students' mixer is familiar, if nothing else. Sidney met Flower and Tanger here two years ago, them proudly representing Quebec and promptly adopting Sidney when they learned he was Canadian.

The beer is still bad, the students are wearing eclectic clothes and the music is too loud. Flower and Tanger are making the rounds, while Sidney is awkwardly standing in the corner. He's wondering when he can make a more or less graceful exit, when someone comes to stand next to him. Sidney quickly glances at him—tall, dark hair and a mischievous grin that makes Sidney's eyes linger on him a bit more.

"Hi," the guy says. "I'm Geno."

"Hi, I'm Sidney." Sidney smiles. "Are you Italian?"

Geno smiles back and shakes his head. "No, Russian. Real name is Evgeni, but is hard for English tongues, I think."

"Yevgenni," Sidney tries.

Geno laughs. "Maybe stick to Geno."

Sidney blushes. It was hard enough to study French in school, and Russian's even more difficult, he thinks. "Geno," he repeats obediently.

Geno taps his cup against Sidney's. "Sidney."

He smiles at Sidney who's feeling a bit hot under the attention of those dark eyes and that wide, expressive mouth. It reminds Sidney of the fact that he didn't have any opportunities to hook up back home. So he does the only thing that comes to mind: he smiles back broadly and stands up a little bit straighter.

That's of course the moment Tanger turns up. "Hey, you made a friend!"

Sidney tries to send him a glare that says he doesn't have to sound so surprised and to please fuck off to wherever he was. 

It seems that Tanger has become immune to Sidney's glares and he starts chattering with an amused looking Geno. It's difficult to get a word in, once Tanger starts his "join our frat" speech, and then Flower comes and drags Sidney to the dance floor, despite the fact that Sidney can dance as well as a wooden puppet. He manages to throw one last glance at Geno and that's it. Sidney loses sight of him in the crowd and allows himself to feel a little bit of pity, which leads to drinking way too many beers, all of which Flower cheerfully provides.

***

The international mixer is the only thing Sidney goes to. After the tremendous hangover he suffered, he refused to be part of any more recruitment efforts. 

He only shows up on pledge night because he's the president, he can't not be there. He's still thinking about the paper he has to turn in in two days when he's walking into their basement where the pledge takes place, not paying a lot of attention until he bumps into a solid wall of muscle.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't look—Geno?"

Geno grins down at Sidney. "Happy surprise to see you here."

"He's all lies," Tanger says, appearing at Sidney's side. "I told him right away that you're our president." 

There's a mischievous twinkle in Tanger's eyes, which Sidney doesn't like. He decides to ignore it entirely. "So you're interested in joining Phi Iota?"

Geno shrugs. "Sound interesting," he says. "I only know one person here, would be nice to have more friends."

"We're all pretty good friends," Sidney says. "You'll fit in well in no time," he adds despite feeling a pang—his one big rule is to no fuck anyone in the frat. It only leads to drama and chaos and Sidney decided in his first month that it wasn't worth the bother. Now, with Geno leaning toward him and smelling nice, he kind of regrets that rule, but not enough to break it.

Tanger grins at them. "Now it's time for the pledges, though." He tows Geno away and it's the last Sidney's able to talk to him that night.

***

After the pledging ceremony it feels as if Sidney's tripping across Geno everywhere. When he leaves the house at 7am for an early morning lecture, Geno's running. Sidney returns his wave and tries not to stare at his retreating form.

Then he's studying in the library in between classes, frowning at the comparative article he's currently reading. Seriously, how difficult is it to provide evidence for their claims? Sidney's fairly sure that Taylor could write a better academic article. He's viciously underlining and writing comments in the margins when someone pulls out the chair next to him. 

Sidney manages not to sigh—he doesn't like people sitting too close and the last time he looked up, most of the tables were empty, so there's ample space to sit that is not next to Sidney. He glances up, just to determine who's encroaching on his space, prepared to look as foreboding as he can to stave off any attempts at conversation. But it's Geno grinning down at him, looking more amused than anything else.

"If I know you grumpy, I sit somewhere else," he says and it's mostly a joke, but there's also a faint vibe of uncertainty and that's just... Sidney may be socially inept, but he's not an asshole on purpose, so he smiles back.

"No, it's fine," he says. "I just was surprised by you sitting down."

Geno's shoulders sag a little with relief and he starts pulling out textbooks and notebooks out of his bag. "I have to do homework," he says. "See you, think maybe we could do together?"

Sidney's not sure whether he means that they both study their own things or if Geno wants Sidney's help. He doesn't even know what Geno actually is studying, even if he's only here for a year of if he's doing his entire studies here, but he finds he can't say no.

"Of course," Sidney says. He peeks at Geno's notebook and finds a lot of formulas. He can't even tell if it's maths or chemistry or anything else. "I'm afraid I can't help with that," he says pointing to something that includes more Greek letters than Sidney is comfortable with. He was good at maths and science in school, but it was hard work, much more than the effortless way he could remember historical events and contexts.

Geno bumps their shoulders. "Not need help with that," he says. "Can do all alone."

Sidney can't help a relieved sigh. Geno bumps their shoulders again. "But maybe look over answers? Still need to work on English."

"For sure," Sidney says. 

It's a good afternoon. Sidney manages to get a lot done. The library inevitably fills up, but Geno and he form an island, nobody sitting right next to them. Geno sometimes hums under his breath when he's figured out a very difficult part, and normally it should bother Sidney who prefers to work in absolute silence, but he finds it relaxing, just an audible reminder that Geno is still there. 

At the end, he knows which thesis to use for this term paper and how to structure his arguments. Geno's finished his maths homework and asks Sidney to double-check his written answers. His written English is okay, mostly it's odd turns of phrases and occasional missing words. Sidney has seen Tanger's essays, which are riddled with misspellings and way harder to get through because Sidney just spends half the time sounding out words and forgetting how to spell himself. 

"Do you have English classes?" Sidney asks after, when they're leaving the library.

Geno nods. "Yes, twice week."

"Twice a week," Sidney corrects automatically and stops himself short. "Oh, sorry, I didn't—"

"Don't mind," Geno says. "Is helpful."

Sidney smiles at him, relieved. "Um, if you have questions, please feel free to ask me."

"Thank you." Geno wraps his arm around Sidney's shoulders and pulls him close. "Very good friend," he says. "Am glad to pledge for Phi."

Sidney ducks his head and hopes that Geno doesn't notice him blushing slightly. Geno's words make him feel pleasantly warm.

"It's great to have you," he replies. They reach the building where Sidney's next class takes place. "This is my stop."

Geno nods. "My English class is over there."

Sidney finds himself unwilling to let Geno go. He tugs on the straps of his backpack and scuffs his shoe. "Geno, listen..."

"Yes?" Geno turns toward him. "You have question for me?"

"I was wondering if you'd like to, you know, study together every week?"

Geno smiles brilliantly. "Yes, I would like very much!"

Sidney smiles back just as brightly. It's a matter of moments to exchange their numbers and Sidney walks into the building feeling much lighter. It's normally not that easy for him to make friends, even in the frat.

***

Sidney should have known that it was all too good to be true. One day he comes home and finds that someone has stolen all their outside decorations. He's still standing outside staring at the place where their fairy lights used to be, wondering if Duper's just going through an intense cleaning phase again, when the front door is flung open. 

"You better come inside," Flower says darkly. "We have a situation."

"Oh god," Sidney says. He lets Flower pull him inside and herd him into the living room. It seems like most of the frat including the pledges are there. Their expressions range from vaguely amused (Tanger) to fed up (Duper) to guilty (Geno).

"What's going on?" Sidney asks the room. Flower pushes him down into an armchair and points to a sheet of paper on the coffee table. 

Sidney picks it up and reads it. With every line he reads he feels more incredulous. When he's done, he reads it again. Then he looks up and looks at his friends. "Is this for real?"

Flower nods, his expression still very grim. "Yes. Our honor has been challenged."

Sidney turns to Geno. "How do you even know Ovi?"

Geno half-shrugs. "He's Russian, counselor think may help adjusting, introduce us."

Sidney looks back at the, well, declaration of war Alexander Ovechkin, president of the Kappa Alpha fraternity, has written them, citing them stealing away Geno from them as the starting offense. "And why is he demanding that we, what, keep our dirty Canadian hands off you and return you to him?"

Geno shifts, drawing Sidney's attention back to him. Sidney thought it hardly possibly, but he looks even guiltier. "Geno?"

Geno mumbles something that Sidney can't understand. Flower elbows him. "Speak up."

Geno glares a little, but he speaks up. "Maybe Ovi think I join his frat."

Sidney just looks at him. Geno sighs loudly, put upon. "Okay, maybe I tell him little bit I will."

Flower starts laughing. 

Geno starts waving his hand around. "He very annoying! Keep talking until I say yes just to shut up!"

Flower's doubled over, lying across Duper's lap. Duper is taking it with stoic calm, as if the social chair of his frat having a breakdown on him is nothing out of the ordinary. Sometimes Sidney wonders what happened before he joined or if Duper is just normally that calm. 

"You're Helen of Troy!" Flower gasps out. Three people simultaneously throw something at him. 

Sidney ignores his yelp. "Why didn't you pledge for them?"

Tanger scoffs. "Obviously we're the better frat!"

No one's quite looking at Sidney, in a way that makes it very obvious that no one is looking at him, but that everyone wants to. Sidney feels himself blush and immediately stamps out the ridiculous thought that he was the deciding factor for Geno. 

"And how exactly," Sidney says, "does stealing our decorations help?"

"It doesn't," Tanger replies. "Except now we have to retaliate obviously."

"Re-tail?" Geno asks.

Flower's apparently over his fit and sitting back. He's straightening his shirt and very calmly looking at Geno. "Dear friend, that means that we're going to pay them back dearly and gain the upper hand in this most glorious of battles—a prank war."

Sidney doesn't even try to convince them to just go and talk to Ovi. Flower has a mischievous glitter in his eye and Sidney knows that it means nothing good, but Flower's already strategizing with Tanger, his usual partner in crime, and Sidney knows better than to interfere. He calls the impromptu chapter meeting to an end. He's absolutely starving and if he doesn't eat soon, he'll just keel over. 

A quick PB&J will be enough to tide him over until he's managed to put something more substantial together. After what was definitely not a temper tantrum in his first few months in the frat, no one's touching his jelly and peanut butter anymore, so they're always in the same place. 

While Sidney is studiously spreading the jelly, he feels someone sidle up to him. When he looks up, it's Geno leaning against the counter next to him. 

"Sorry," Geno says. "Don't want to be trouble."

Sidney smiles at him. "Don't worry about it. If it weren't about you, Ovi would have found another reason to play a prank on us."

"But would not be war," Geno says. "Would be simpler."

Sidney shrugs. "Maybe," he says. "Or maybe his prank would've insulted Flower's pride and we'd still be in the same place."

Geno still doesn't seem convinced. Sidney's not quite sure how to put their relation with the Kappas into words, so he just bumps Geno's shoulder. "It'll be okay," he says.

Geno looks down, scrunching up his nose. It looks cute and Sidney tamps down on his instinct to lean in closer. "Should still apologize, yes?"

"Too late," Sidney says. "Flower's already plotting and even if you apologize to Ovi and he brings our decorations back, Flower'll still want to get revenge.

"Not apologize to Sanja," Geno says. "Apologize to you."

Sidney blinks. "Who's Sanja."

"Sanja. Is nickname for Alexander."

"Like Geno for Evgeni?"

Geno shakes his head, but he's smiling. "No, Geno is English nickname. In Russian say Zhenya."

Sidney mouths it, tries to wrap his mouth around it. "That sounds even more difficult than your real name."

Geno laughs. "Not for Russian tongues. Maybe more flexible than Canadian tongue, yes?" 

He winks at Sidney and Sidney hopes he's not blushing as hard as he thinks he is. This is definitely flirtatious. 

"Maybe you can teach me," he says and then wants to bite his lip because that sounds like he's flirting back.

"Would be honor." 

Sidney's sandwich is ready, but he feels weird eating alone, so he's made a second one. He pushes the second one over to Geno. "Here, eat with me."

Geno looks down at the sandwich and smiles at Sidney, the brilliant happy smile that makes something in Sidney's stomach swoop. He ignores it and just focuses on the happy feeling of having made food for someone. "Thank you," Geno says. "You not that hungry?"

Sidney's stomach is choosing this moment to growl loudly. It makes Geno laugh. "Can't lie now," he says. "Should eat both sandwiches."

"No, no, it's fine," Sidney says. "I'm just eating this to tide me over until dinner's ready."

"What you making?" Geno looks very interested and Sidney remembers the big communal kitchens in the dorms and that Geno is probably only used to the cafeteria food. 

Sidney looks into the fridge and he definitely has enough chicken to feed two people.

"Are you hungry?" Sidney asks, but it's only pro forma, just in case Geno already has plans because he begins to pull out everything he needs. 

It's comfortable to cook with Geno. He does everything Sidney tells him without complaining, like some other people Sidney could name. 

Duper looks in on them, but just raises his eyebrows and leaves again. Sidney tries to ignore how comfortable this feels.

***

Sidney's not very involved with the revenge prank—as president it's good if he can maintain a veneer of plausible deniability. So it comes as a bit of a surprise when he leaves the history building, thumbing through the comments the TA left on his last paper, and walks straight into Ovi.

"Where is it?" Ovi looks apoplectic. 

Sidney blinks. "Where is what?"

Ovi grabs Sidney's arm. "Where is my journal?"

Ovi's grip is painfully tight and Sidney feels wrong-footed. "Why should I know?" He tries to twist away from Ovi, but he doesn't let go. "Ovi, come on, let me—"

Ovi shakes him and Sidney wonders what's in the damn journal that Ovi's so angry over losing it. 

Sidney would like to say that he managed to break free under his own power, but in fact he's saved by the bell—in this case by Ovi's phone, which starts to blare some obnoxious Eurotrash remix that Sidney's heard often enough at parties to recognize the song.

"Nick, this is a bad time—"

"I found it," Sidney can hear from the speakers because Ovi is still standing way too close. "Some joker put it on my desk."

Sidney watches with fascination as Ovi actually blanches. He's never seen that happen before, it's amazing to note the way Ovi's entire body goes still. Sidney's not even sure if he is still breathing. If he had to take a wild guess, he'd say that there's something in the journal that Ovi definitely doesn't want Nick Backstrom, Kappa Alpha's pledge master, to see.

"I'm coming," Ovi says. "Don't read it." He hangs up and glares at Sidney. "Your friends are dead," he announces and finally he lets Sidney go. He's gone before Sidney can think of an appropriately vicious reply.

He goes home himself, feeling too rattled to spend a few hours in the library. 

In the living room Flower and Tanger are playing Mario Kart, cursing each other out in French. Sidney stops in front of the TV, ignoring the way Tanger yells at him.

"Who of you stole Ovi's journal?" he asks.

"It wasn't stealing," Flower says. "We just put it somewhere else where an interested party could maybe learn some interesting things."

"Is there a page in it that says Alexander Backstrom surrounded by hearts?" Sidney asks.

"Mostly bad poetry in Russian," Tanger says. "At least that's what Geno said."

Sidney breathes deeply. "Okay. Okay." He turns toward the kitchen on instinct. He starts to make a sandwich, just to have something to do.

Flower follows him. "Hey, are you okay?"

Sidney nods. His arm is throbbing slightly where Ovi had grabbed him. He wonders how he would feel if anyone were to tell Geno that Sidney's starting to slowly but surely fall for him. Geno's funny and smart and thoughtful. He's easy to love, with his mischievous grin and the way he's poking fun at everyone and everything, and the way he always wants to cheer everyone up when they're having a bad day. 

"I'm fine," he says, probably more than just a beat too late.

Flower glances at him. "I don't believe you," he says.

"Don't believe what?" Geno appears behind them. 

Sidney concentrates on stacking his sandwich. "I'm just tired," he says. 

"Sure," Flower says. "I'll leave you to Geno then."

Sidney closes his eyes because Geno leans in close and Sidney feels like Geno can look right into his mind if Sidney looked at him. "It's really nothing," he says.

Geno simply hovers and watches Sidney finish his sandwich and carry it over to the tiny table and chairs they squeezed into the kitchen. Instead of taking the chair across from Sidney, he sits down next to him, though. He's quiet all through Sidney eating.

Strangely enough, it helps. Between the food and Geno's steady presence, Sidney feels much calmer and kind of ridiculous about being freaked out.

"You now going to tell me what happened?" Geno asks quietly and it's not the loving forcefulness certain French Canadians use to get Sidney to tell them what they want to know, but it's no less effective.

"It's really nothing," Sidney feels confident in saying. "Ovi was just really upset about the diary."

Geno raises an eyebrow. "How do you know?"

"He talked to me when I left the library." Sidney hesitates. "I think he was worried about Nick reading it."

"Ovi is stupid," Geno says. "Cannot see what's right in front of him."

Sidney blinks because that doesn't quite make sense to him. "What do you mean?"

"He worry so much, but cannot see that Nick wants the same thing. So both are unhappy. Should simply talk and be happy."

Sidney feels like Geno's oversimplifying a lot. "Maybe he's worried about it not working out and then he's going to lose Nick."

"Not going to happen." Geno sounds so sure and Sidney envies him that.

"But it could," Sidney insists. "You can't know."

"So never even try?" Geno makes a derisive noise. "So stupid, making himself sad for no reason."

Sid's not 100% sure anymore that they're still talking about Ovi and Nick. "Maybe he just needs some help," he says. "It's a big leap to make."

Geno grins at him. "We provide help," he says. "Hope Nick did read diary."

Sidney can't help but laugh a little. "Maybe it would get him to go easier on us now."

It had taken them hours to remove the cotton balls from Paulie's car. It had been an ingenious idea, but Paulie was very particular about his car and he would've flipped out if he had seen it. No one wanted to risk a repetition of curry fiasco from last year. Nealer had made out with one of the girls from their sister sorority and Paulie hadn't taken well to it. They had suffered through three weeks of barely edible food until Nealer had clued in and made up with Paulie.

Remembering it now, Sidney feels wistful. After they finally got together for real, Paulie and Nealer had been so happy and Sidney was self-aware enough that he had been jealous at the time. 

Geno bumps his shoulder gently. "You not listening," he says. "What do you think?"

"Sorry, just wool-gathering," Sidney says. Geno's face is precious and Sidney can't help but laugh. The frat has been steadily working on exposing Geno to all sorts of idioms and figures of speech and it's one of Sidney's favorite things, also because Geno collects everything and then asks Sidney in private what they mean. Sidney likes that Geno trusts him enough to ask when he won't ask anyone else. 

"Just thinking about random things," he says. 

Tanger blows into the kitchen. "Geno, my man, just who I was looking for." He has the sort of manic grin that Sidney associates with things he doesn't want to know about, so he more or less gracefully makes his exit. He has stuff he needs to think about.

***

"So you're not coming home for Thanksgiving?" his mom asks. She asks every year, despite the fact that American Thanksgiving is so late and Sidney will be home for Christmas anyway. So far, he's only come home once, in his freshman year, when he was still fighting home-sickness and felt bad about Taylor being disappointed by him being away for so long. 

"No, sorry," Sidney says. "We're doing Thanksgiving in the frat again."

"I hope you'll have lots of fun. Do you still have the recipe for the mashed potatoes?"

Sidney smiles. Last year his mom sent him all their thanksgiving recipes so that he could make the dishes he was used to. Paulie declared her mashed potatoes the best ones he'd ever eaten. "Yes, thanks."

"Is everyone going to stay?"

"Most of them," Sidney says.

"What about Geno?"

Sidney stops dead. "What about him?"

"Is he going to stay?"

Sidney blinks. "I don't know. I think so?" Sidney swears he can feel his mom being displeased with him through the phone line, so he hastes to add, "But I'll check with him."

Then his mom has to run some errands and they have to stop talking. The call makes Sidney feel a bit disconcerted. He didn't think he talked enough about Geno for his mom to pick up on it and now he can't stop thinking about it.

He's still wondering about it when he meets Geno for their usual study session. Geno's written English is much better—all hail spell and grammar checks—but Geno insists that Sidney can explain much better than his teacher, which Sidney doubts a lot, but he's also very weak to Geno's big puppy eyes.

"Are you going home?" Sidney blurts out as soon as they're sitting down.

Geno blinks at him. "Home?"

"I mean for break," Sidney says. "I guess the flights to Russia are pretty expensive, huh."

Geno nods and spends a lot of time on straightening his notebook. "Have enough money to live here during term," he says. "But parents don't have much money." He smiles sadly. "Go home only for summer."

"Oh." Sidney thinks about not being able to go home for that long, not seeing his parents and Taylor, not being there for Christmas—"Wait, that means you'll even stay during Christmas break?"

"Maybe go home with Nealer," Geno says. "He says his parents used to having Paulie, too, so don't matter if I'm there, too."

Sidney hopes for Nealer that his actual invitation was more friendly than that. The conversation with his mom flashes through his mind. "You could also come visit me," he says. "Canada is great, although the trip takes a while." Cole Harbour isn't right around the corner.

Geno smiles, but shakes his head. "Need visa for Canada."

Sidney decides to look into this, but then Geno distracts him with questions about tenses of all things.

***

Sidney's still thinking about what his mom said during the Thanksgiving planning meeting. It's an elaborate affair to make sure that the chores are evenly distributed. Paulie has already claimed Sidney and Geno as kitchen helpers, so they're freed from any additional duties and Sidney is only half-listening to the heated discussions about who has to go shopping and who has to decorate.

"Speaking about decorations," Flower says. "The swine still hasn't given us our stuff back."

"Swine?" Sidney asks at the same time that Geno says, "Sheep. His name mean sheep."

Sidney is blankly staring, but at least he's not the only one. 

"Ovechkin," Geno elaborates. "Is close to овца, sheep."

"Ah," Sidney says. "Wait, he still has our stuff?"

Flower nods grimly. "Fortunately we have a plan." He grins at Sidney and Sidney feels his stomach sink. That grin never bodes well.

He's right because after Flower elaborates his plan, Sidney says, "You have watched too many heist movies."

"Oh, come on, Sid, you can totally pull this off!" Tanger is totally into this as well. Sidney needs to rethink his choice of friends.

"Guys, you want us to sneak into Kappa house," Sidney pokes the plan of Greek Row Flower produced, "while everyone is out at class, which leaves us with like a 30 minute window in which we're supposed to search for our stuff and get it out without anyone noticing?" He looks at Geno and prods him. "Come on, Geno, tell them that this is a terrible idea."

Geno, the traitor, actually seems thoughtful. "Could work. Sanja often go to cafe after class, not come straight home."

"You're not helping," Sidney tells him. Geno just grins, tongue poking out of the corner. "How should we even know where to look?"

"That's easy," Flower says and he produces another sketch, this time of the inside of Kappa house. "We know the layout of the house, thanks to some of our insiders." He nods towards Geno and Tanger.

Sidney asks Tanger resignedly, "Did you break in and steal the journal?"

"I'm pleading the fifth," Tanger says.

"You're Canadian," Sidney says. He's a little grouchy. Geno wraps his arm around Sidney's shoulder. 

"Listen to Flower, he have plan."

Flower circles two places on the plan. "These are two storage closets. They should be our best guess because we know it's not in any of their rooms."

"How do you know—wait, don't tell me, I don't want to know," Sidney says. He reluctantly has to admit that this makes it seem more feasible.

"There's one on the second floor and one of the first floor," Flower says, clearly scenting blood in the water. "If you start with the second floor one, even if you have to search both, you should have enough time to get out again."

Sidney sighs and looks at the plan again. "This is such a bad idea," he says. He looks up at everyone's faces, but grim determination is the predominant expression. He doesn't really stand a chance. "Okay, let's do this."

***

And this is how he ends up in a closet with Geno, praying that none of the Kappas need something from this closet. They searched the first closet on the second floor, but came up empty. The other one on the first floor was looked, which meant jackpot, but first they had to find the key. By the time they finally discovered it, their time window was almost up and Sidney tugged anxiously on Geno's sleeve. 

"Come on, we have to get out or someone—"

The front door opens and there's the distant murmur of a few people talking. In that moment Geno manages to open the closet and he pushes Sidney in first before him and pulling the door closed behind them.

The closet is tiny and stuffed full of things. There are also a few boxes marked with Phi, so at least they found their things. Unfortunately Sidney's pressed up tight against the boxes and Geno's pressed up tight against Sidney.

The voices move past them and Sidney's trying to frantically think of a way how they could get out of this.

Geno starts to wriggle behind Sidney and ends up pressing his hips closer against Sidney's. It's an intimate position and Sidney has to work really hard on not pushing back, grinding his ass against Geno's dick, to feel him grow hard and—no, that's a bad line of thinking.

"What are you doing?" Sidney hisses as quietly as he can.

"Find phone," Geno whispers. "And be quiet."

Sidney wants to bang his head against the boxes. Finally Geno stills and he's holding his phone in front of Sidney's face. 

_need help_ , Geno types and sends to Flower.

In that moment, Sidney's phone starts to ring. 

"You didn't mute?" Geno asks while he's groping for Sidney's phone in his pockets.

"I forgot!" Geno's hands feel big all over Sidney's hips and slipping into his pockets, but then Geno has Sidney's phone and rejects the call.

"Turn off!" Geno pushes it into Sidney's hand. Sidney does as he's told with shaking fingers. He's sure that any moment the door will be thrown open by an irate Kappa.

The silence seems to ring in Sidney's ears. But after two minutes have passed, Geno leans in and whispers, "Nothing happen."

Sidney manages a quick nod. "What should we do now?"

The closet is dark and crowded and Sidney feels a bit overwhelmed by everything and he just wants to get out and be able to breathe freely, away from Geno's cologne and the slightly stale smell of the closet.

"We wait," Geno says. "Flower have plan."

Sidney thinks a few uncharitable thoughts about Flower's plans. Geno starts to rub his hands over Sidney's arms and it feels good, calming and grounding, and Sidney focuses on it. 

"Okay?" Geno asks. Sidney nods and he manages to relax a bit.

Then there's a knock on the door, a quick pattern that must mean something to Geno because he opens the door. "Finally," he says.

Outside Nealer stands and shrugs. "Had to lure them out first. Ready?"

Between the three of them they manage to get the boxes out quickly—how did they even manage to accumulate four boxes of decorations, hopefully they're not stealing anything of the Kappas’.

By the time they make it back to the house, Sidney's falling over tired. Both Geno and Nealer keep glancing at him. He thinks he's being too quiet, but he feels wrung out. 

"So how did it go?" Flower is actually beaming at them, looking between Geno and Sidney like he's waiting for exciting news.

"Your plans suck," Sidney tells him curtly. 

The light seems to go out when Flower stops smiling and Sidney feels bad about it for one second, but mostly Sidney just wants a moment of peace and quiet to relax, so he turns around and goes up to his room.

He lies down on his bed. No one's going after him and Sidney can't make up his mind whether he minds or not. He turns over and pushes his face into his pillow. He's such a failure of a human being, he thinks. He's good at history and bad at everything else.

An hour later he hasn't gotten a wink of sleep and the guilt over snapping at Flower makes him get up.

He finds Flower in the living room watching TV. Sidney stands in the door awkwardly, his hands in his pockets. Flower's not looking at him and Sidney doesn't know how to approach him best. 

Duper walks past and gives Sidney a little shove into the room before closing the door.

Sidney sits down on the couch next to Flower, keeping a respectful distance between them. Flower glances at him quickly, but then keeps his eyes on the TV.

Sidney takes a deep breath. Flower's his best friend and he hates this situation. "I'm sorry," he says. "I shouldn't have said that."

Flower hums. "Maybe it wasn't my best plan."

It's a peace offering and Sidney can relax a little bit. "It did work out in the end," he says. "With some mishaps in the middle."

"Yeah, Geno said." Flower slides a bit closer to Sidney. "Are you okay?"

Sidney nods. "Yes, I'm fine."

They finish watching Flower's show in peaceful silence.

***

Sidney is tired. He stayed up late to finish an essay and had to get up early for class and now he's back in the library to study for the upcoming midterms. But he's so tired his eyes won't properly focus, so it's utterly useless. He should go home and take a nap, that would be the best choice. 

But it's cold outside and his bed is a twenty-minute walk away. The table might not be as comfy as his bed, but it has the distinct advantage of being right there.

Sidney closes his eyes to stop himself from staring at the blurry letters in his textbook. His head feels so heavy and his eyes are burning. He rubs them and then rests his head on his hand. Just for a minute, he thinks, then he'll get up and go home, he just needs a minute to rest...

Sidney startles when someone pulls out the chair next to him, and he just about manages to keep quiet. At least he doesn't knock his things off the table. 

Geno looks at him with concern clear on his face. Geno has such an expressive face, Sidney thinks. It's always easy to tell when he's happy or sad or angry. Sidney admires and envies that. He always feels like his feelings get stuck in his throat and it's easier to pretend he doesn't have any beyond a bland smile.

"Sid, are you OK?"

Sidney shakes himself out of his exhaustion-induced stupor. "Sorry, no, I'm good, I'm just tired." He smiles sheepishly. "I'd forgotten about our study session."

Geno looks at Sidney, studying him deeply for a moment. Sidney fights the urge to fidget and shift. He feels like a bug under a microscope, all of Geno's focus on him, which is scary, but also makes him want to preen because he wants to have Geno's attention.

Sidney doesn't know what he expects, but it's not Geno nodding apparently to himself and starting to put his stuff back into his backpack.

"What are you doing?" Sidney watches stupidly as Geno takes Sidney's backpack and packs Sidney's stuff, too. 

"We go home," Geno says. "You need to sleep."

Sidney wants to praise Geno for remembering the "to", but he's brought off-track by Geno pulling him up and bundling him into his coat. He even wraps Sidney's scarf around him and very carefully pulls his beanie over Sidney's ears. It's nice, Sidney thinks, to be taken care of like this.

Geno holds up Sidney's backpack so that he can easily slip it on. Then Sidney remembers that Geno wanted to meet because he was struggling with this week's lesson. "But your English homework—"

"Can wait," Geno says. He carefully, but determinedly herds Sidney toward the door. "Not urgent."

Sidney wants to contradict, wants to say that it's important because it's Geno, but his brain won't cough up the words in the right order and in the end it's easier to just go along with Geno. Having him there, making sure that Sidney doesn't fall into a ditch and just goes to sleep there, pulling Sidney along the way helps a lot. 

Time seems to warp because suddenly they're in front of the house and Sidney could swear that just a blink of an eye ago they were still at the other end of the campus. Geno more or less pushes Sidney up the stairs. "Just three stairs," Geno says. Sidney numbly wonders if Geno has been keeping up a steady monologue all along and it just got lost in the static that now seems to fill Sidney's ears.

"Steps," he mumbles, not sure if Geno's even listening.

The house is quiet when they come in and Sidney can see into the living room and all of a sudden it feels like his legs will only carry him as far as the next couch. Going up to the second floor to his room definitely seems out of the question.

Sidney veers off into the living room while Geno is still closing the door behind. 

"Sid! Sid, wait!" 

But the couch is right there and Sidney just lets himself topple over and onto it, not caring that he's still wearing all his outer clothes, shoes and even his backpack. As soon as he's horizontal, he feels so much better.

"Sid." Geno sounds slightly admonishing, but also a bit amused. 

"Just a second," Sidney says. Just a second and then he'll sit up and take off his coat. 

But then he's gently rid of his backpack. Sidney murmurs his thanks while Geno pulls off his outer clothes. Sidney just has enough wherewithal left to roll this way and that way. He idly thinks that he needs to buy Geno one of those danishes he likes, the one with lots of cream and buttery pastry, as a thank you.

Geno pulls a blanket over him and leans down to whisper, "Will leave now."

That manages to raise Sidney. He grabs Geno's wrist and pulls himself up a little. "No, you can stay, we can study later, I just need a nap."

Geno looks at him again with those dark searching eyes, and Sidney doesn't even care what he can read in Sidney's eyes, as long as Sidney can get him to stay. "Sure? Could come back tomorrow."

"Yes. Please?"

Geno nods slowly. "Okay."

Sidney lets himself slump down, eyes closes, and he only listens with half a mind to Geno taking off his own coat. Then the cushion next to his head dips and Geno's hand comes to rest in his hair.

"Just an hour or two," Sidney mumbles. Geno starts running his fingers through Sid's hair and it's relaxing, reminding him of the way his mother used to soothe him when he was little. Between one breath and the next Sidney's asleep.

***

Sidney wakes up to a soft-voiced conversation. The TV is running at low volume, more for background noise than for real entertainment, it seems. Geno is still next to Sidney, his hand resting on Sidney's shoulder. Sidney pushes into it a little before opening his eyes.

"Hey," Geno says. "Sleep well?"

Sidney nods. "I feel much better now." He looks up and Duper's sitting in the armchair next to them, looking quite amused. That's strange, Duper has a late seminar. Normally they don't see much of each other between their classes.

Geno squeezes his shoulder. "Should eat something, is late."

"Late?" Sidney pulls up his arm to check his watch. "Fuck, you let me sleep for three hours?" 

Geno just shrugs. "Needed it," is his only reply. 

"I'll heat up some food for you," Duper says. "Paulie made curry."

Sidney knows better than to refuse Paulie's food, so he nods. "Thank you," he says because his parents raised him right. 

Geno makes him sit up and drink a glass of water. He still gives Sidney that intense look. "Really feel fine?"

"Yes," Sidney says. He's leaning against Geno. "Thank you for taking care of me."

Geno wraps his arm around Sidney's shoulder. "Would do again. Is thing good friend does, yes?"

Sidney ducks his head. This feels like more than friends. He's always had people looking out for him, making sure he got home all right. Flower once even put him to bed after Sidney lost at beer pong. It didn't make Sidney feel this warm and fuzzy.

Duper brings him a bowl of chicken curry and this reminds Sidney why he loves being in a frat. “Thanks.”

“Don't worry about it.” Duper sits down in the armchair again. Come to think of it, he's looking at Sidney and Geno like they are the most fascinating thing he's seen in his life. It would be very disconcerting even if he didn't glance at the all places Geno is casually touching Sidney. 

Sidney busies himself with eating dinner. It's delicious and Nealer should put a ring on Paulie ASAP and lock him in; he won't find someone else who will tolerate all the shit he pulls and who can cook half as well. Sidney’s mom backed off a lot after Sidney told her about Paulie and his quest to teach all of them the cooking basics. 

As soon as Sidney is done shoveling food into his mouth, he gets up. “Now we have to study,” he says. 

“Sure,” Duper says smiling. “Have fun.” He actually winks at Sidney and it's horrible and Sidney absolutely has to be somewhere else now. 

Unfortunately the only other place that is useful for studying is his own room. Sidney has a room for himself as the president, which means that Sidney is all alone in his room with Geno. It's a grave miscalculation and not just for all the chirping he's going to get for this. 

Sidney steels himself. They are just going to study, he tells himself. It'll be fine.

Geno pulls out his English workbook and opens it to a page. "You can explain?"

Sidney only has his desk chair and his bed to sit on, and only the bed is big enough for both of them. At least his bed is made, he thinks. While he tries to perch on the edge, Geno sits down and shimmies back until he's leaning against the wall, leaving Sidney only the choice to do the same or talk to Geno's knees.

Geno puts the workbook half on his lap, half on Sidney's, so that they both can see. It's an exercise about prepositions and Sidney totally knows the right answers, but he has no idea how to explain them.

"Uhm," he says. "Well, this one is easy—you know that one."

When Geno doesn't say anything, Sidney looks up. Geno's looking at him, smiling. "You have something," he says and points to Sidney's face. "From sofa."

Sidney ducks his head and rubs at this cheek. Then Geno's hand touches his hand and settles over his cheek. He glances up startled and it feels like Geno's much closer now.

"I like napping with you," Geno says. His thumb is slowly rubbing over Sidney's cheek and it's utterly distracting.

"You didn't even sleep," Sidney protests. "Or did you?"

Geno shakes his head. "Like watching you sleep," he says. "Feel like standing guard. Hush Nealer and everyone." He grins unrepentantly.

Sidney feels his face heat up at the thought that the entire frat saw him napping on the couch, pressed up against Geno. He can very vividly imagine Geno cheerfully telling everyone off.

"Felt good," Geno continues. "Taking care of you."

Sidney can't help but look up directly into Geno's eyes. They're dark and warm and Sidney can't remember any of the reasons why this is a bad idea. This time he keeps still, just tilts his head when Geno leans in. When their lips meet, he can't suppress a gasp and he can feel Geno smile against his mouth.

"Like," Geno murmurs before pressing more kisses against Sidney's mouth. It's still pretty chaste, but even so the warm, wet press of Geno's mouth against his own is enough to make Sidney feel incredibly turned on. He tried so long and so hard to not want this, and now that he has it, he doesn't think he can stop.

Sidney would've been content with only this much, but Geno sucks on his bottom lip and runs his tongue over Sidney's lips and Sidney opens up. He's grabbed Geno's arm, hanging on tight, as if Geno would disappear if he let him go. The workbook is forgotten about until Geno pulls Sidney closes and pushes it to the floor to get Sidney even closer.

"Waited so long," Geno says when they come up for air, his lips still on Sidney's cheek, pressing little butterfly kisses everywhere he can reach as if he can't bear not to be close.

Sidney makes a pleased noise. 

He turns his head to capture Geno's lips again. It's easy to let himself slide down and pull Geno on top of himself. Sidney buries his hands in Geno's hair and moans when Geno settles down on him, their body pressed flush. He's half-hard already in his jeans.

Geno pushes his thigh between Sidney's and Sidney bucks up. "Feel good?"

Sidney doesn't know how describe how good it feels, so he settles for pushing his hands underneath Geno's shirt and running them over his skin. "Could feel better," he mumbles against Geno's jaw.

Geno laughs. "Greedy," he says, but he nibs at Sidney's ear. Sidney blushes. 

"We can just keep doing this," he says. "I don't—just what you're comfortable with."

Geno pushes himself up a little so that he can look Sidney in the eye. Sidney feels himself blushing more under the scrutiny. "Was joke," Geno says. He smiles. "Am greedy for you, too."

Sidney makes a noise that he will deny to his dying day was a whine, and pulls Geno close again. He doesn't quite track how they lose their clothes, lost in kissing and touching Geno. Geno's hands on his skin feel electrifying. It's as if everywhere Geno touches is suddenly an erogenous zone because every touch makes Sidney shiver and shake. It's almost too much except how it isn't even enough.

Then they're both down to their underwear. "Okay?" Geno asks with his hands on the waistband of Sidney's boxers.

Sidney nods shakily. "You, too," he says. 

Geno kisses him before pulling off Sidney's boxers and then his own briefs. Sidney watches in fascination before he realizes that he's allowed to touch, and reaches out to run his fingers over Geno's cock. 

Geno groans. His fist closes around Sidney's cock. "Like?" Geno says against Sidney's cheek.

"Yeah," Sidney says and leans in for a kiss. He's now also jacking Geno off, slowly moving his fingers. It's a bit dry so he pulls off—Geno whines—to lick his palm. After it's easier.

Sidney feels too frantic already to try anything fancy—he's been told he's good with his mouth and he enjoys sucking cock, but then he would have to give up kissing Geno and right now he feels like he needs Geno's kisses like he needs air. Geno's also moaning and with his free arm he pulls Sidney closer so that he can wrap his hand around both their cocks. Sidney groans loudly and drops his hand to cradle Geno's balls.

Geno's jacking them off ruthlessly, fast and hard, and Sidney can't help thrusting his hips. His spine starts to tingle and it feels both too soon and not soon enough until he starts to come all over their bellies.

Geno curses in Russian and comes only a few thrusts later. His hand is covered in come. Sidney feels placid and he pulls up Geno's hand to lick at his finger.

Geno groans like he's been shot and pushes his finger into Sidney's mouth. Sidney sucks on it happily, curling his tongue around the knuckle, tasting semen, sweat and something uniquely Geno underneath. He pulls off with a plop and he's relaxed enough to say, "Next time I want to suck your cock."

"You kill me," Geno says and kisses Sidney deeply. Sidney thinks he might be chasing the taste of his own come in Sidney's mouth and he moans into it. 

"But there will be a next time?" he asks because that wasn't a no, but it wasn't a yes, either.

"As many times as you want," Geno says. 

Sidney smiles and burrows against Geno, feeling comfortable and relaxed. "We should clean up," he mumbles. 

Geno grabs the closest thing—Sidney's shirt, he thinks and can't bring up the energy to mind—to clean them perfunctorily. They manage to worm underneath the covers.

It feels incredibly lazy to nap again so soon, but Sidney feels languid and warm and happy. Geno's wrapped around him, and Sidney's sure that if he were a cat, he'd be purring up a storm at Sidney right now. They exchange a few more lazy kisses before Sidney pushes his face into Geno's neck and takes a deep breath. He's deeply asleep a few seconds later.

***

Sidney wakes up later in the night. He's disoriented—it's dark outside and his mind is hazy with sleep. He doesn't know what woke him up until Geno leans down and whispers, "Go back sleep."

"Geno?" Sidney reaches for Geno and realizes he's putting his clothes back on. "Are you leaving?"

"Is late," Geno says.

Sidney swallows. "You could stay," he says. He tries to imagine the teasing he's going to get. It will be embarrassing and he will blush a lot and manage to only counter weakly, but there would also be Geno, probably proudly grinning, sitting by Sidney's side. It wouldn't be so bad.

Geno stops in the middle of pulling on his jeans. "You sure?" 

Sidney nods. The embarrassment can't hold up against the way it feels right to be cuddled up close to Geno.

Geno drops his jeans and crawls back into bed. He's utterly shameless about pushing Sidney into the position he wants and it looks like Sidney has to content himself with being the little spoon. Geno's arm is warm around his waist, his breath puffing against Sidney's neck. It should be annoying, but actually it makes Sidney feel—loved, wanted. He drops off to sleep between one breath and the next.

***

Sidney resists Geno's attempts to convince him to take a shower together. "It's really not big enough for the two of us."

Geno sighs, pretending to be put out. "No sense for adventure," he says. "Go, hurry then, you stink."

Sidney swats at him. "And whose fault is that?"

Geno grins unrepentantly. They spent a few minutes making out and rubbing off on each other. It was great, but now they have to face the music (their friends and their endless teasing). 

Sidney showers quickly (alone), but by the time he's dresses Geno's still in the shower. He straightens his room, but then he feels ridiculous. He's a grown up and these are his friends, he can totally face them on his own. Besides Geno won't take much longer and Sidney's hungry.

"I'm already going down, okay?" he calls and hears an "okay" back. 

Sidney steels himself, but when he goes into the kitchen, he only finds Duper pouring himself a bowl of cereal.

"Good morning," Duper says cheerfully. "Had a good night?"

Yes, all his friends definitely know what happened last night.

"Good morning," Sidney says. "Yes."

"Just a word of warning," Duper says. "I think Tanger and Flower are preparing a _Sidney got laid_ party."

Sidney sighs and pours himself a cup of coffee. "How bad will it be?"

"That was all the warning you're going to get," Duper says. "God forbid I spoil Flower's fun.

Sidney prepares his own breakfast—he's in the mood for omelette and he makes enough to share with Geno. Sex makes hungry, apparently. He's just about done when there's a commotion at the door.

"Hi, Sidney!" Flower throws his arm around Sidney's shoulders and he's beaming much too broadly. Sidney's instantly suspicious.

"What did you do?"

"Tsk," Tanger says. "We come with a big surprise gift for you and this is how we are received?"

Tanger's holding a box from the good bakery nearby. 

"What gift?"

Flower pushes Sidney toward the table. "We heard some strange noises yesterday," he says. "And it appears that Geno never left yesterday, so..."

Geno chooses that moment to turn up. He's wearing yesterday's crumpled clothes and smells like Sidney's body wash and shampoo. It makes something warm grow in Sidney's chest and he has to duck his head, which makes him look at the box. 

Sidney reaches for it and flips open the lid before he can stop himself. Then he has to laugh. It's a cheesecake, perfectly golden with a tiny pair of groomsmen on top.

Geno moves to stand behind Sidney and looks over his shoulder, his hands on Sidney's hips. He also laughs, his chest vibrating against Sidney's back. Sidney looks up to find all his friends openly beaming at them like the assholes they are, but it's also somehow perfect.

"Thanks, guys," Sidney says.

That's the moment Nealer stumbles in. "Hi—what's going on?" Then he seems to clue in when he sees Geno's hands on Sidney. "Aww, you couldn't have waited another week?"

Both Flower and Tanger whack Nealer in unison. Sidney just raises an eyebrow. "Why—wait, did you bet on this?"

Flower smiles beatifically. "We're your friends," he says. "Of course, we wouldn't bet on something as important as our friend's happiness."

Duper winks at Sidney. "They won the pot," he says. "They could probably afford to buy you ten cakes."

Geno picks up the pair of groomsmen and throws it at Flower, hitting him squarely in the chest. Flower squeaks and Tanger pulls him out of the line of fire. Sidney collapses laughing against Geno's chest, as Flower and Tanger beat a strategic retreat.

Geno wraps his arms around Sidney and kisses his temple. "Okay?" he asks.

Sidney leans up for a proper kiss. "Very okay."

***

The cheese cake actually is delicious. Sidney sits on the porch eating the last slice while watching Duper and Tanger put up their decorations again. "You forgot the fairy lights," he points out.

Tanger makes a rude gesture, but he climbs up on the ladder to string up the fairy lights. 

Sidney laughs and eats his cake. He can't remember when he last felt this happy and relaxed. Even the amount of potatoes he'll have to peel tomorrow can't dampen his mood.

Thanksgiving is a loud and boisterous affair. Paulie's the first in the kitchen doing things to the turkey that Sidney would rather not know about. 

There's a lot to do, but working alongside Geno is soothing. Paulie is playing some music playlist that's somehow related to the holidays without actually having any holiday songs on it (Sidney doesn't even pretend to understand that one), and the kitchen is warm and all the things they're cooking are smelling great.

Everyone else wanders in and out and chats with them and it's very sociable. It reminds Sidney of big family gatherings back home.

Paulie opens a bottle of red wine for cooking and in short order Sidney and Geno have glasses, too. It sends the trend for the day. 

By the time the food is ready, Sidney is blissfully buzzed. Geno smiles at him and Sidney giggles back, leaning against him. 

"Come on, you need food," Geno says and brushes a kiss on his lips. "Okay?"

"Okay," Sidney happily agrees. 

The food is great. It's possible that Sidney tells Paulie this multiple times because everyone just starts laughing whenever he does. Sidney can't mind—they're all spread across the living room and Sidney is sitting on the couch with Geno leaning against his legs. It puts his head in the perfect position for Sidney to pat his hair and after he's done eating, he just keeps running his hands through Geno's hair. It's all mussed up already.

"I think your boy needs some pie and then a nap," Duper says. 

Geno grins. "Maybe he need nap first."

Sidney frowns. "But pie," he says. 

Geno laughs full-heartedly, head thrown back on Sidney's knees to look at him. His eyes are twinkling and he's petting Sidney's ankle. "Will bring you pie," he says.

"You're a good boyfriend," Sidney says.

"Oh my god, bring him some pie and then take him too bad. I can't take this level of cute," Nealer says. "You're disgusting."

"You're just a sore loser about the pot," Sidney says while Geno heaves himself up and goes into the kitchen. 

Then there's pie and Sidney is so full that he thinks he can't get up under his own power from the couch. He reaches for Geno who pulls him upright with little effort. Sidney faceplants into his chest and oofs a little. He looks up earnestly at Geno. "I think I'm a little drunk."

"You think?" Geno seems very amused.

Sidney nods gravely. Geno's already leading him upstairs. "I have to take a nap. And you should nap with me."

"Is good plan," Geno agrees. He's pulling off Sidney's hoodie and is working on his jeans. Sidney hums happily and starts pulling at Geno's clothes. "Stop helping," Geno admonishes. He pushes Sidney to sit down on his bed. "I do already."

By now Sidney knows what Geno wants and he rolls towards the wall, leaving enough space for Geno to lie down and wrap himself around Sidney. He's hot, like a furnace, and Sidney relaxes into his embrace. It's a great way to take a nap.

When he wakes up, it's already dark outside. Geno's still asleep and Sidney rolls over to look at him. Even in sleep he seems to be smiling.

It doesn't take long for Geno to stir.

"Hey," Sidney says softly. The dark makes him feel like they're in their own private bubble. 

"Hi," Geno says. He leans in to kiss Sidney and Sidney returns it enthusiastically until he remembers that he wanted to tell Geno something. 

"Hey, I talked to my mom," he says. "She said that we could invite you to stay with us for Christmas and then you can get a visa for Canada."

It's too dark now to properly see Geno's face. "What?" Geno turns around and turns on the light on Sidney's desk. He looks surprised. "What you mean?"

"Um, I asked my mom and she has this friend at city hall. Her son used to play hockey with me when we were little. Anyway, she said that if we invite you, you can get a temporary visa for Canada."

Geno looks stunned. 

"And we have these air miles which we can use, so the flight would be very cheap," Sidney says. "I mean if you want to come home with me, you don't have to, it's just—" He takes a deep breath. "I don't like the idea of you staying behind all alone here," he says softly. "So if you want…"

"If I—yes, I want, Sid," Geno says. "But is big."

"But you want to?" Sidney smiles at him. "You would like to come?"

Geno kisses him. "If you want me there, yes, I want."

Sidney kisses back and pulls Geno in tight. He doesn't know how to say that Geno makes him happy and that he wants to keep Geno for as long as he can. He knows that Geno's going to finish his degree at the same time as Sidney. They've got that long to make this work and after that—they'll see. 

For now it's enough to have Geno in his bed and kissing him softly.

***

Sidney feels pretty good. Or, as Flower puts it, "you look disgustingly happy."

It lasts until the day that Sidney is running late for class (well, late for him, but it's important that he can sit on his usual place) and is rushing out the door only to slip in a comedy-worthy manner and landing square on his back. "Fuck!"

It hurts and Sidney can only spare a thought that today he didn't need to take his laptop with him before the front door is frown open and Duper's looking out. "Sid, what—is that _ice_?"

Sidney tries to push himself up, his hands slipping on—really, that is ice. "Was there a freak ice storm last night that I missed?"

"Hardly," Duper says. "Looks like it's only our porch."

Sidney looks around and Duper's right: the entire street is dry, only their porch is frozen over, and only the area between the door and the stairs. In that moment Ovechkin is strolling past on the other side of the street and cheerfully waving at them.

"This is a shitty prank," Sidney tells Duper. He's cold, his back is hurting and now he's going to be really late for class. 

"This has to stop," Duper says. He's frowning at Ovi's back. "I can't believe we're still engaged in this."

Sidney lets Duper pull him back inside and herd him into the kitchen. "So how do we get this to stop?"

"That's going to spoil Flower's fun," Duper says as he presses a hot mug of coffee into Sidney's hands.

"Currently I care more about my ass than Flower's fun," Sidney says.

"That's very uncharitable of you," Flower says. "Although I guess Geno would agree with you."

"You're horrible," Sidney says. "I don't know why I'm friends with you."

"Lucky accident," Flower says. Then he squints at Sidney. "Why are you worried about your ass?"

"Since I just spectacularly fell on it," Sidney says. 

"Oh, come on, it's not that big that you just randomly fall over."

"The Kappas iced our porch." Duper's leaning against the counter.

"That's genius," Flower says. "Why didn't we think of this?"

"I don't care," Sidney says. "But I'm missing my seminar for this, so let's decide how the hell we're going to get them to stop."

Flower grins. "I have an idea."

It's a terrible, horrible, "this can't possibly go well" idea. Since it's also the only one they have, Sidney's protests are overruled. 

Geno, on the other hand, thinks it's a great idea. Sidney thinks that basically means they're doomed.

"You just want to make out with me," Sidney says, trying for an accusing tone and probably failing by a mile wide, if Geno's grin is any indication.

"You like," he says. 

Tanger makes a vomiting noise. "Stop it, you two," he says. "Wait until you're in front of Kappa house."

Geno laughs. "You just jealous."

Sidney sighs loudly. "Back to the plan," he says.

Half an hour later he finds himself in front of Kappa house, Geno at his side. "What if it doesn't work?" he asks, not for the first time.

"Will go okay," Geno says, just like the previous times. "Make Sanja happy, he too busy fucking Nick to prank us anymore."

"I'd rather not think about Ovi's dick," Sidney says. 

"Don't worry, am not jealous," Geno says. "Ovi has tiny dick."

Sidney bursts into laughter. "That's not true," he says. "Is it?"

Geno shrugs. "Tiny compared to me," he says, his eyes twinkling and his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth. 

"You're a troll," Sidney says and bumps their shoulders. "You're lucky I like you."

Geno smiles broadly. "Yes, very lucky."

Sidney blushes at the genuine affection in Geno's voice. "So we're going to do this then?"

"Yes," Geno says reaching for Sidney. "Is best."

Sidney laughs against Geno's mouth and thinks that maybe he doesn't mind if this doesn't work out. 

It takes five minutes for Nick to appear. He's grinning. "My president would like me to tell you to please go away. You're spoiling the view."

"He didn't say please," Sidney says. 

Nick grins wider. "He really didn't." 

Tanger, who's quietly waited until now next to the door, jumps up and grabs Nick. "Let's go!"

"What the fuck, guys," Nick says, but between the three of them they manage to get Nick to Phi house before any other of the Kappas can come to his rescue.

Well, the idea is that they will come, or else this entire thing will blow up into their faces.

***

"So how long are we going to wait?" Nick says. He's surprisingly calm for somehow who was pretty much kidnapped in only a shirt and is on enemy territory right now. It would probably be more frightening for him, if Sidney hadn't lent him a hoodie and Paulie hadn't made him a sandwich. If Sidney's ever kidnapped, he hopes that he'll be this comfy—Nick's sitting in the armchair, his feet kicked up on the coffee table.

"Geno has sent him an ultimatum," Sidney says.

Nick raises an eyebrow. "And what did you threaten him with?"

Sidney shakes his head. "Not telling."

Nick looks him shrewdly, but Sidney's determined to stand his ground. He's pretty sure that any moment now—

The knock on their front door rings loudly through the first floor. 

"Ah," Nick says.

Ovi looks thunderous. "This is stupid."

"We propose an exchange," Sidney says. He was elected as spokesperson ("It was your stupid prank war!" "But you're the president!") and now he has to see this through.

"What exchange?"

"We return Nick and this prank war stops," Sidney says. 

"Or else?"

Sidney smiles. "Or else we might have something to tell dear Nicky."

Ovi balls his fists, but in that moment Nick appears in the hallway. "Just agree, Alex," he says. "I'm pretty much over these stupids pranks as well."

"You are?" Sidney asks.

"Yeah." Nick sighs. "We were running out of good ideas, anyway."

Sidney bites his lips to hide his grin, as Ovi glares at Nick. "Still had many good ones."

"No," Nick says very determinedly. "None of your ideas were any good."

Ovi opens his mouth, probably to argue, but then he stops dead.

"What?" Sidney asks.

"What are you _wearing_?" Ovi says and points at Sidney's hoodie. 

Sidney looks innocently. He might have chosen to give Nick his Canada hoodie on purpose. "He was cold," he says. "We take very good care of our hostages."

Nick at this point is grinning, too. "Very good care," he repeats. "I might just decide to stay here."

"Fine," Ovi says. "Take this stupid hoodie off." To Sidney, he says, "We're good. No more pranks."

"Flower?" Sidney says. "Accepted?"

"Accepted," Flower agrees. "It was a good one, Ovechkin."

Nick's pulled off Sidney's hoodie and handed it to Geno, who's barely stifling his laughter. "Thanks, guys."

"It was a pleasure," Sidney says with a big smile. "You're welcome here anytime."

Ovi looks like he's going to explode any second. He grabs Nick's hand and pulls him to his side. "Let's go home." With one last glare at Sidney, he turns around and marches off. 

"Bye!" Nick calls over his shoulder. "Let's not repeat this!"

Ovi stops short on the sidewalk, which is apparently a save distance from the house, and turns toward Nick. "Are you okay?" He glares at Sidney again and Sidney hurries to close the door. 

Flower's already huddled at the living room window which is a crack open. "Here we go," he says before Geno shushes him.

The wind is just right so that they can hear the conversation happening on their sidewalk right now.

"Thanks for the rescue," Nick says. "My hero." It's teasing, but also a little bit sad. If Nick has been talking to Ovi like this and Ovi still didn't get it, he might be beyond their help.

"Don't joke," Ovi says. "I worried."

Nick's quiet for a moment. "Just as friends?" 

Sidney really admires Nick's balls. He wouldn't have had the courage to ever ask directly like that.

Ovi opens and closes his mouth a couple of times. "No," he says, barely audible.

Nick's smiling then, broad and happy, like the sun rising from the horizon. He leans in and then...

All of Phi Iota erupts into loud cheering when they finally kiss. Ovi shows them his middle finger, but then he's busy kissing Nick.

Duper opens the door and calls, "Hey, take it back to your house!"

Nick laughs and starts towing Ovi back to their house. "Thanks!"

Sidney calls through the window, "You're welcome!"

They congregate in their living room. Sidney's fuzzy with the warm feeling of a good deed well done and the blissful knowledge that no more awkward surprise are waiting for them in the future.

"Happy?" Geno asks him.

Sidney leans into him and looks up, his head on Geno's shoulder. Geno kisses him and Sid sighs into it. "Yeah," he says when Geno lets up, pressing his lips against Sidney's temple. "I'm good."

And it is good: Sidney's still doing well in his classes, but now he also has Geno. The future is looking bright and right now Sidney wouldn't change a thing. "I'm really, really good," he says again and holds Geno's hand. Right now he couldn't be better.


End file.
